Resilience / Mitigation

Community Wildfire Defense Grant 2024 (FY25) West

The purpose of the Community Wildfire Defense Grant is to assist at-risk local communities and Indian Tribes with planning and mitigating against the risk created by wildfire.

The Act prioritizes at-risk communities in an area identified as having high or very high wildfire hazard potential, are low-income, and/or have been impacted by a severe disaster. More details on these three priorities can be found in the Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs).

The CWDG helps communities in the wildland urban interface (WUI) implement the three goals of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (Cohesive Strategy):

  • Restore and Maintain Landscapes: Landscapes, regardless of jurisdictional boundaries, are resilient to fire, insect, disease, invasive species, and climate change disturbances, in accordance with management objectives.
  • Create Fire Adapted Communities: Human populations and infrastructure are as prepared as possible to receive, respond to, and recover from wildland fire.
  • Improve Wildfire Response: All jurisdictions participate in making and implementing safe, effective, efficient risk-based wildfire management decisions.

 

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Advancing Climate and Cleantech Leaders (ACCEL)

ACCEL is here to bolster you as you develop critical climatetech solutions by offering access to funding, networking connections, resources, and opportunities that structural inequities put out of reach. We embrace intersectionality and look forward to you bringing your full self to the program. This year-long program combines acceleration with a curated curriculum, incubation through Greentown Labs membership, and extensive mentorship from Greentown and Browning the Green Space (BGS)’s networks of industry experts. Greentown and BGS know the climatetech industry must change the status quo to equitably position you to lead startups that will address climate change, support the development of diverse workforces, and fiercely advocate for the deployment of clean technologies in historically underserved communities. For Year 3 of the ACCEL program, we’re seeking applications from innovative startups at TRL 2-4 with founding and executive teams that are primarily made up of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) leaders who are developing climate solutions for the agriculture, buildings, electricity, manufacturing, resiliency + adaptation, and transportation sectors.

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NOAA FY25 SBIR Phase 1

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued its Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Phase I Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. NOAA Phase I SBIR awards provide up to $190,000 to fund a six month period of performance for conducting feasibility and proof of concept research. The tentative award start date for the FY25 competition is August 1, 2025. NOAA encourages proposals from qualified small businesses for highly innovative technologies with strong commercial potential that fit within NOAA’s mission areas.

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Direct Air Capture Research, Demonstration, and Community Engagement

The purpose of this solicitation is to advance the technical, economic, and environmental viability of innovative DAC technologies to meet the state’s carbon neutrality goals. This can include testing, piloting, and demonstrating advanced technologies, coupled with active community engagement, benefits planning, and community education.

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Regional Resilience Innovation Incubator (R2I2)

The Regional Resilience Innovation Incubators (R2I2) is a cross-directorate NSF solicitation led by the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) and the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP). R2I2 will support community- engaged team science to co-design high-impact solutions to climate-related societal challenges that leverage recent advances in fundamental climate change and Earth system science research. Each R2I2 project will address specific regional climate challenges and will develop and demonstrate solutions to those challenges that can be effectively applied in real- world settings. Investment in R2I2 will leverage past federal investments in addressing climate change and will provide a bridge connecting advancements in basic science with local knowledge, informed decision making, and technological innovations for societal applications.

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Sustainable Transportation Planning Grants FY 2025-26

Eligible planning projects must have a transportation nexus per Article XIX Sections 2 and 3 of the California Constitution. Therefore, successful planning projects are expected to directly benefit the multimodal transportation system. These grants will also improve public health, social equity, environmental justice, the environment, and provide other important community benefits. The period of grant fund availability spans over three FYs and approximately 32 months for grant project activities after the grant agreement is executed and Caltrans issues a Notice to Proceed. Refer to Chapter 9.2 for details regarding the anticipated grant project start and expiration dates.

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Pitch Competition – NREL 2025 Industry Growth Forum (IGF)

The IGF builds on decades of technical expertise and market analysis accumulated at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the nation’s only federal lab dedicated to renewable energy and energy efficiency research. We are strongly committed to our mission of connecting cutting-edge startups with motivated investors. Presenting companies are chosen from applicants vetted by a selection committee of more than 150 climate tech and cleantech investors and industry experts. This rigorous screening process provides beneficial feedback to startups that apply. The top 40 companies are invited to present.

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Breakthrough Energy Fellows

Hailing from around the world, BE Fellows are focused on technologies that have the potential to reduce greenhouse gases, at scale, by at least 500 million tons per year. Technologies supported to date include high-impact areas such as hydrogen, electrofuels, steel, cement, food and agriculture, energy storage, nuclear fusion, carbon dioxide capture, storage and sequestration. The Breakthrough Energy Fellows program has three pathways, defined as follows:

  • Innovator Fellows are world-leading scientists and engineers who enter the program with a critical climate technology to commercialize.
  • Business Fellows are experienced professionals with tech commercialization skills who support the Innovator Fellows in accelerating their path to market.
  • Explorers receive funding for earlier stage, higher technical risk endeavors. These projects are typically led by scientists at university labs or research entities.
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Inspiring Generations of New Innovators to Impact Technologies in Energy (IGNIITE) 2025

The Inspiring Generations of New Innovators to Impact Technologies in Energy (IGNIITE) 2025 program is designed to support a new cohort of early-career innovators to develop the most disruptive and unconventional ideas into transformative new technologies across the full spectrum of energy applications. This announcement is purposefully broad in technical scope, but eligibility is limited to early-career researchers. In addition to research efforts, awardees will engage with ARPA-E and fellow awardees through dedicated IGNIITE events, meetings, and mentorship activities. Submissions to this solicitation must propose transformational R&D that has the potential for high impact. If successful, a project could create a new class or new trajectory for an energy technology, with the potential to substantially contribute to ARPA-E’s statutory goals. Awards under this program may take the form of exploratory research that provides the agency with information useful for the subsequent development of focused technology programs. Alternatively, awards may support proof-of-concept research for a particular new technology in an area not currently supported by the agency.

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PowerNorth Incubator (Minnesota)

Are you an innovator? Do you have an emerging business or solution related to energy, climate, sustainability, or cleantech? Are you ready to take your innovation or business to the next level? The PowerNorth Virtual Incubator is a 10-week program tailored for early-stage energy and cleantech entrepreneurs in Minnesota.

By the end of the program, participants will have refined their business strategies and built valuable industry connections. The program concludes with a pitch event where participants will showcase their venture to a curated audience of investors, entrepreneurial support organizations, and key partners, unlocking new opportunities for collaboration and investment.

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EnergyTech University Prize 2025

Sponsored by the Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the American-Made EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP) challenges student teams to compete for cash prizes for successfully identifying a promising energy technology, assessing its market potential, and creating a business plan for commercialization. Faculty are challenged to create innovative implementation plans that expand energy technology commercialization.

Students: Develop and present a business plan that leverages National Laboratory-developed or other emerging energy technologies developed by students, faculty, or industry. Throughout the competition, they receive mentorship and materials to help them succeed, all while competing for more than $400,000 in cash prizes.

Faculty: Develop and implement educational activities to engage more students in energy technology commercialization and entrepreneurship topics at their institution. While faculty have always been, and remain, welcome and encouraged to mentor a team competing in EnergyTech UP, this new track is designed to incentivize and support faculty directly, with more than $100,000 in cash prizes available.

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Exelon Climate Change Investment Initiative (2c2i)

The Climate Change Investment Initiative (2c2i) is a 10-year, $20 million, joint commitment between Exelon Corporation and its philanthropic arm, Exelon Foundation, to invest in and cultivate innovative start-ups focused on advancing climate change mitigation, adaptation and resiliency efforts, while also promoting social equality and economic prosperity, in Exelon’s service territories. Through the combined resources of Exelon Foundation ($10 million equity investment commitment) and Exelon Corporation (up to $10 million in-kind service commitment), 2c2i supports innovative start-ups that catalyze solutions to climate change challenges within Exelon’s major market areas, while advancing social equality and economic prosperity. Specifically, we’re looking for startups focused on any aspect of sustainability (e.g. GHG mitigation, climate resiliency, etc.), that are currently doing work, or have the potential to do work, that impacts any of Exelon Corporation’s six major markets—Atlantic City, Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Wilmington, DE.

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